Rashomon Compare And Contrast Essay

Akutagawa’s “Rashomon” and Süskind’s Perfume introduce the audience to their own portrayal of evil that contrasts the clichéd literary concept of bad always being triumphed over by good. Evil is particularly developed in their works to achieve a similar purpose: to reveal the social stigma and corruption of human society. Notwithstanding the similar surrounding—Akutagawa’s crumbling Rashomon gate and Süskind’s degrading depiction of Paris—that reflects the equally declining state of the society, they employ different approaches in portraying evil. Akutagawa establishes evil as having an ambiguous nature while Süskind relates evil through the sense of smell, with both treatments effectively disclosing the human depravity residing within their
3) of his era.

Both authors use different treatment of evil to achieve their similar revelation of human corruption. Despite “Rashomon” being a short story, Akutagawa does not introduce evil at the very beginning but foreshadows evil slowly, obscurely as it establishes throughout the story, contrasting Süskind’s plausibly opposite method of implementing evil from the beginning in spite of Perfume as a novel. Relating to the modernism brought to traditional Japan, Akutagawa first uses colours—using their significance in Japanese culture—in representing evil thus revealing the society’s condition. His first subtle hint of evil is through the gate’s ‘crimson lacquer’ (p. 31) that has ‘rubbed off here and there’ (p. 31), signifying that the once great construction no longer radiates with vitality and spirit; it is now a ‘hide-out … place for abandoning unclaimed corpses’ (p. 31). Akutagawa tarnishes the religious belief of the corrupted society with ‘broken pieces of Buddhist images’ (p. 32), their lacquer, ‘gold … worn off’ (p. 32); implying that the society’s withering faith in religion is associated with their current dishonorable
He underlines this relation through Father Terrier’s description of how human odour is ‘always a fleshly … sinful odour’ (p. 16), correlating evil and odours together to satirise the conventional assumption of the olfaction being the basest of sense. He proves the belief wrong by demonstrating the olfaction’s capability of revealing human depravity, successfully creating a putrid realm as stench ‘reigned in the cities’ (p. 3); giving the reader insight of how these places are foully filled with transgression through his array of olfactory diction. From the streets that ‘stank of manure … stench of congealed blood’ (p. 3), to the stench of ‘sweat … tumorous disease’ (p. 3) of people, everything is assigned with at least an unsettling odour to further emphasise the evil embodied in the novel. ‘The stench was foulest in Paris’ (p. 4) where Grenouille is born, which is interestingly ‘the most putrid spot’ (p. 4) as it correlates highly with him as a being of great evil. Jean Bussie’s ‘hysterical, hot maternal sweat’ (p. 128) reflects her delirious superstitious beliefs that overrides her motherly instinct as she believes him being ‘possessed by the devil’ (p. 10) when he is still an infant because he ‘doesn’t smell at all’ (p. 10), refusing to see him like the other babies she has taken care of. His unsettling lack of odour here is not a sign of purity nor does it indicate that he is not